Frederick II and his castles: the Castle of Gioia del Colle

"Many many years ago, in a
land between the sea and hills, there were a castle, a jealous king and a
beautiful princess penned in a tower".

How many tales may begin in this
way. But the story of Bianca Lancia, the woman loved by Frederick II and mother
of three of his children, isn't a fairy tale. A happy ending neither, but it
represents one of the darkest and the most dramatic events that tradition links
to the Stupor mundi. There aren't certain sources, but a chronicle
of that time, the father of Bonaventura from Lama, tells this. Bianca Lancia,
the emperor's young lover, lived in the castle of Gioia del Colle, pregnant
with Frederick's son, Manfredi, when an accusation of betrayal questioned the
paternity of the baby. The emperor, mad with jealousy, ordered to close the
woman in a tower of the castle until she gave birth to the child. When he was
born, the resemblance with the sovereign freed Bianca from any doubts. But the
affront and the stain on her honour were unbearable. The woman made bring a
dagger and cut her breast; then, she put it on a tray, where she laid down
little Manfredi too and sent them to Frederick. Eventually, alone, she killed
herself.

In reality things went
differently, also because after Manfredi Bianca gave to Frederick another
daughter, Violante. The imprisonment and the suicide of the noble woman are just
a black legend, from which the castle of Gioia del Colle arises enveloped in a curtain of Gothic fog.
Brought back to its original splendour from restoration works along the XX
century, the castle dominates right in the middle of the historical centre of
the little town of Apulia. From a net of little streets you end out in the
square where one of the two towers stands out, the Torre del Rossi. The façade
and all the outer wall are covered by an elegant stonework, a decorative
element which is typical of Frederick's buildings, imported from the Holy Land
at the time of the fifth Crusade. You can find other features form the Orient,
so much appreciated by the emperor, in the decorations inside. Crossed the
Gothic portal, you enter the wide trapezoid-shaped atrium.

From here you can
see the other tower of the castle: the tower of the Empress. The name, as you
can imagine, comes from Bianca Lancia's event, who, married on her deathbed by
Frederick II, was in fact the empress, even for a very short period. It's
important that the first place that you meet, just crossed the hall with a
monumental wood-fired oven, was the jail of the castle. You need to go
downstairs and to enter in a dark square room. Here it’s where the tradition
says that Bianca was imprisoned. It's surprising, for a prison of that time,
the presence of a comfort that just kings and princes could allow themselves: a
stone toilet, once connected with a sewer system, is still perfectly preserved
in a niche in the wall. Just this object makes one think that really noble
people were imprisoned there. But something else refers to the character of
Bianca. On one of the stones of the wall there are two half spherical bulges
but their function is still unknown.
They are "Bianca's breast", sculptured in the stone to
remember the sufferings of the empress.

If you want to dive in the
atmosphere of a Medieval court, then you must leave the tower and reach the
"throne room". It's a rectangular place, on the background there is a
marble throne covered with bas reliefs
about the theme of the falcon; in the centre of the room a big fire
place has its big display, richly decorated too. Marble benches along the
walls and a wide pointed arch that
separated the space of the sovereign and high dignitaries from that of the
beggars who waited on the benches.

Finally, it's worthy to visit the
castle of Gioia del Colle to admire the collection of the National
Archaeological Museum that is hosted in its rooms. Established in 1977, the
museum collects evidences of the near site of Pauceti on Monte Sannace.